It is always exciting buying tickets to see favourite comedians, artists, acts, sporting events or even to travel. With so many sites to choose from, picking the most reliable is a must to ensure that the tickets are received in time and the day runs smoothly. For the majority of people, this is the case. But for some, plans can be ruined in a flash.
The most hassle free way to purchase tickets is from the primary ticket market. Tickets are either sold from the box office itself or they are assigned to reputable merchants such as Ticketmaster, who will apply a booking fee before selling them to customers. If tickets are sold out, then consumers can consult the secondary ticket market, which involves the resale of tickets, bought from the primary market. The main contenders of this market are websites such as viagogo, Stub Hub and Seatwave, who also take commission on ticket sales. Often the price of the ticket will have been inflated and has even been known to double in these circumstances. This endeavour has been coined as ‘touting.’
Secondary ticket prices are not regulated by the sites they are advertised with. One example included a Wimbledon Final ticket advertised on Seatwave, originally sold at £232 with a second hand pricetag of £12,000. In order for cheap tickets to go on sale for some events, organisers must apply for government funding to make the event more affordable to the public. The secondary sale means that these efforts are effectively shadowed.
Lisa Burger from the National Theatre told the BBC, “It’s incredibly frustrating that it’s those tickets that are often the ones which are being sold at multiples of their face value. Crucially pricing out the people who we really want to come and take advantage of those tickets.”
It is against the law for secondary ticketing sites to conceal the original ticket price from consumers during their sale. Even so, some individuals are willing to pay extortionate prices for the opportunity to attend a previously sold out event. Those considered particularly at risk, are young people who fall into the 18-24 age brackets.
Ticket Scams
Ticketing fraud usually means that no tickets are received or counterfeit tickets are distributed. In 2013 alone, around 3.7 million pounds slipped through the hands of hopeful consumers, into the back pockets of conceited conmen. Out of 4,555 people targeted, 50% were buying concert, festival or flight tickets. A significantly increasing number of attacks were noted within the summer festival period and when there was high demand for winter flight tickets.22% of reports were comprised of flight ticket fraud and commonly, consumers were told that the flight had increased in cost, attempting to squeeze further cash from the victim. Chronic cancellation fees would be issued if the consumer tried to back out of a dubious deal. In a high percentage of cases, a flight was never even booked. Incidents are said to be becoming more frequent.
The fraud can arise in several formats. On some occasions websites will offer tickets to events that are either sold out or are yet to go on sale. Or consumers may be informed that a steward will be present at the event on the day to deliver the tickets in person. Calling the company supplying the tickets may be futile as there is no answer or it does not connect. URL’s that are similar to official websites may be used in order to be perceived as a genuine firm. Fraudsters brave enough to show up at festivals, would possess a certificate of authentication or ID to convince optimistic ticket hunters. All of these examples along with fake and missing tickets are methods that criminals have used in the past.
A concert featuring the rapper Drake denied entry to 170 fake ticket holders in March at London’s 02 Arena. Tickets were sourced from a secondary ticketing site known as Seatwave and Gumtree or Social networks like Twitter. Beyoncé’s Manchester show was also targeted with over 140 disappointed fans refused in February.
Other ticket tricks have included ‘speculative ticketing,’ where a merchant will offer tickets before they actually possess them. A consumer who fell foul to this bought tickets from viagogo for £387.55, originally valued at £187.55, for the Arctic Monkeys. A week before the event the company contacted Mrs Edge to tell her that they were unable to supply the tickets. Fortunately, the consumer was fully refunded but was shocked that the website had no policies in place to check merchants actually have genuine tickets available.
In most cases when attending a ticketed event, ID or the credit card in the name of the ticket holder, must be presented to gain admittance. When tickets are bought second hand, some websites such as Seatwave will send a man along with identification to escort the new ticketholders into the venue. The individuals are known as ‘walkers’ and repeat the process numerous times at the event to make sure no one is denied entry.
In order to avoid falling victim to these scams there are a few easy steps that can be followed;
1. Look at feedback online from previous users on forums for hints on a company’s reliability.
2. Check the terms and conditions before buying any tickets, even genuine websites may not supply refunds.
3. Check with the event promotion team or venue for information on when or how the tickets will go on sale.
4. Check company details –do they have a landline telephone number based within the UK? Do they have a valid UK address, rather than a PO Box?
5. Find out the date when the tickets will be sent.
6. Pay for tickets with a credit card as this will offer a purchase protection policy. However, it does require the transaction value to be over £100 and up to £30,000. Different card providers will have a different eligibility period for this service, contact them to enquire.
7. During the transaction check that the website is secured. A padlock should appear next to the URL.
8. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act states that the resale of football tickets in the majority of instances is illegal. Do not knowledgably buy second hand tickets of this nature.
“Taking a punt on an unofficial seller, be it over the internet or face-to-face, is just not worth the risk” said Commander Stephen Head, from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO.)
ACPO have urged for the ticketing sector to revise sales methods and distribution, to make sure that they are resistant to fraudulent activity.
Earlier this year in April 2014, several MP’s acknowledged concerns and pushed for greater protection, reinforced with compensation, for those who choose to purchase second hand tickets over the internet. They appealed for inquiries to be conducted identifying merchants and investigating those who sell twenty plus tickets as second time around.
The focus is on counterfeit tickets, along with tickets that are prohibited from resale and are therefore, cancelled and void when the buyer attends the event. Subsequently, MP’s are calling for travel costs of those who have lost out to be reimbursed, a cap on resale pricesand greater corporative responsibility in general.
“As the Metropolitan Police have said, the complete lack of transparency in the secondary ticketing market contributes to consumers getting ripped off – whether that’s through artificially high prices or buying fake or cancelled tickets, as lots of Drake fans have unfortunately done recently.There’s no excuse for inaction from either the secondary market or the government, and I hope ministers will use the Consumer Rights Bill to put fans first,” said Sharon Hodgson, an MP for the cross-party committee.
Currently these are just propositions and a change in legislation and industry direction, would need to be actioned before the consumer population can benefit. Although it is clear that the government will also benefit from cutting the losses as the ticketing industry is said to be worth over 1 billion pounds within Britain.
Despite police comments on the lack of transparency present in the industry, there has been a general lack of public faith in the powers of police investigation.
A spokesman for The Iridium Consultancy, a ticket security firm said,“Our team dealt with 3,600 people who had presented invalid and counterfeit tickets for shows at one major venue in 2013.To date, not one victim has had justice or even the semblance of an investigation by police as ticket fraud is not viewed as a priority crime”
Collaboration of Police and Government successfully banned the resale of any London 2012 Olympic Games tickets with a one off law. Itprevented the generation of profit from the event, as part of Operation Podium. Following this, the Rugby World Cup in England requested the same privileges and was refused.
Sure enough hundreds of Rugby tickets were sold on after this decision. Secondary ticketing site Viagogo, fell under heavy public criticism when it relocated its head office from London to Geneva. It had received a Supreme Court ruling demanding the company to supply names and addresses of merchants who resold the tickets through the website. The company claimed the move was due to business expansion and reassured the incident would not reoccur.
In summary, buying tickets in advance for any event should be simple. But it does not come without its risks, if consumers insist on buying tickets from unreliable sources. Secondary ticket websites have no control over the extortionate prices tickets are sold for. However, by law the original cost must be displayed. Those who choose to buy tickets by this method, at best will receive tickets but have to be escorted into the event with a ‘walker’ to present their ID and grant admission. At worst, people never receive tickets or find out that the merchant was never in possession of the tickets in the first place. The government and the police are considering enforcing further measures to prevent ticket fraud but no official regulations presently exist. Essentially, it’s currently up to the consumer to safeguard themselves from ticket fraud.
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